Pete Yorn @Mercury Lounge, Sept. 13th

Tonight met up with Andrea K. for Pete Yorn at the Mercury Lounge. (Bharat was supposed to join me, too, but he forgot his ID!) I felt like an interloper (not an antelope) for I am admittedly more familiar with Yorn's Richard Gere-ish looks than I am with his music, but I figured (a) it's the Mercury Lounge, (b) Yorn's from Jersey -- woo hoo!, (c) hot ticket, and (d) it'd drive Wawa mad that I got to go while he is traipsing across Europe for his beloved Pearl Jam. And while I was easily able to position myself within a few feet of the stage, I kinda regretted it slightly for we were standing in nutty fan central. Oh, I could see that Pete Yorn has his fair share of stalkers...ahhh, the uber fans...

Anyway, as for the music, I was pleasantly surprised...well, I guess I had no real expectations, so I wasn't really surprised, but maybe delighted. Yorn had a nice rapport with the audience, immediately starting off by saying, "Welcome to my basement!" cos the Mercury has that kind of feel to it. He and his band, which consisted of a bass, drums and keys alternating with 2nd guitar, stuck to the rocking tunes, playing old songs (songs that sounded somewhat familiar to me) along with new ones from his latest effort. He played a few covers including one of my favorite Smiths songs -- "There is a Light That Never Goes Out" -- and ended with Elvis Presley's "Suspicious Minds."

Pete Yorn played for a good 90 minutes easily. While his music may not be the most challenging or ground breaking, he's got a nice repertoire of solid rock with some country twinge (he played some blues as well as a song he did with Natalie of the Dixie Chicks). I really enjoyed the evening, especially since I preceded it with some pastrami at Katz's, a lemon cupcake from Sugar Sweet Sunshine, and a run in with the Grates on the sidewalk outside of Pianos ("Hallo, I saw you last night open for the Dears! You were G-R-R-REAT!!") It would have been perfect if Wawa could have been there, I suppose. Then he prolly would have been the recipient of Pete's harmonica rather than this married dude who stood right in front of Pete. And then the Wawa spazz attack would have made it all worthwhile. Did I tell you Eddie Vedder has tossed him not one, but two harmonicas this summer? I wonder what he'll bring back from Europe!

Anyway...time for bed! Thank God there was no opener!